WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Ginny Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), issued a statement ahead of the annual American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention, which takes place this week [July 22-25]. The union, led by school-closing political operative Randi Weingarten, meets every other summer to vote on resolutions that establish the union’s political and collective bargaining agenda rather than focus on academic instruction and students’ needs.
Gentles, IWF’s Education Freedom Center director, issued the following statement:
“When the American Federation of Teachers gathers in Houston for its summer convention, the urgent issues impacting educators and the K-12 education system will be ignored. The powerful union won’t have time to tackle chronic absenteeism, alarming learning loss, and discipline challenges that endanger teachers and students, because the AFT convention prioritizes the advocacy agendas of leftist activists and AFT members who aren’t teachers. The AFT plans to vote on dozens of issues that are unrelated to K-12 education, including divesting from ‘Israel’s scholasticide and genocide,’ artificial intelligence in healthcare, California’s water supply, addressing healthcare workers’ mental health, and mandating ‘gender neutral’ language.
“The AFT has a reputation among its friends and foes as a K-12 ‘teachers union,’ but it is a catch-all amalgamation of nurses and healthcare workers, Planned Parenthood employees, librarians, higher education employees (including graduate students), early child care workers, and other federal, state and local government employees. If teachers choose to pay dues to the AFT Public Education unit, they should be informed that AFT President Randi Weingarten does not prioritize K-12 educators’ interests and needs. Teachers should pay close attention to the AFT Convention and consider leaving the AFT.”
At the last AFT convention, in 2022, AFT voted on a range of resolutions that had little to do with academic excellence, from declaring solidarity with Ukraine to an endorsement of divesting from fossil fuels. Additional resolutions included measures to defeat Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, undermine state school choice programs, condemn state legislation that protects students from gender ideology, and name diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as its core values.
IWF’S Education Freedom Center issues a weekly Teachers Union Report Card exposing national, state, and local unions, which you can read HERE.
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